Star Wars: Zero Company (story)

 So, more on the story of Star Wars: Zero Company and what I appreciate about it.

Very much spoilers follow.

The story opens with the customizable Hawks (reminding me of Dragon Age 2's "Hawke" as a gender-neutral name) running a small merc group in debt to a Hutt. He's a disgraced/discharged Republic captain accompanied by Trick, a medically discharged clone who served under him, and Kabb, an ex-boxer scoundrel. There's also Aurelio, who seems destined to perish in the tutorial mission. They operate out of a grounded freighter with Runa, a former Separatist financial specialist, along with their quartermaster and a couple engineers. So you've already got a group of mixed backgrounds who are not fully aligned with either side of the ongoing conflict, but they each have their preferences.

They catch a bit of a break when offered a contract by a Republic Intelligence officer, Bennic, to assist an ore baroness, Jae, in taking her mining outpost back from a cult known as the Infinite Coil. Some characters chafe at working for the Republic, but it's pay that gets them out from under the debt with the Hutt. Jae joins in the field and things get moving.

The Coil proves to be run by a woman going by Fathom and they are spreading via the "Shadow Plague." The Plague is seen as a disease that's transmitted by the bite of bug-like creatures. Some people bitten die. Others are physically marked, mentally compelled to follow Fathom, and given some powers that generally revolve around bolstering each other. It's also shown that the Plague infect/convert clones and decreases midichlorian counts (which seems contrary to the Force-like powers they have, but okay), so it's just lethal to clones and Jedi.

So there's investigating how the Coil is spreading the Plague and what they're up to. There's work toward and eventually retaking Jae's base. Along the way, a Jedi apprentice who's master died to the Plague joins up to pursue Fathom. Jae's home is retaken and she departs. A Mandalorian, Cly, invites herself into Zero Company with a self-confident, "help me locate the people I'm after and I won't even charge you, since you couldn't afford me anyway" sort of approach. And, honestly, she may have become my most effective operator, so... totally worth it.

Hawks infiltrates a prisoner exchange between Republic and Separatist forces that Fathom is going to crash and in walks Clone Wars Anakin. You even get to rock the battlefield with his overpowered self for a couple missions. You also pick up Luco, a Sep sniper who is out for revenge against Fathom when her attack kills his love.

Between some missions along the way, there are news casts of major events, like the assault on Coruscant and death of Dooku. This gives a good sense of how the timeline is progressing.

Then, Fathom has been tracked to an asteroid belt. The Republic even sends along a couple squads of clones to help in the attack. The mission reward of $200,000 credits tipped me off that something would have to go wrong (or it would be the end of the game), but I did not actually expect what happened.

Just before the mission is launched... Order 66 goes down. Palpatine declares the Jedi traitors and declares the Republic replaced by the Galactic Empire. Bennic, with his new orders, reluctantly tells Hawks the mission is scrubbed and Zero Company will have to be brought in for processing. Given their backgrounds, it's clear that won't be good, so a fight breaks out. And Trick, a loyal friend to Hawks, turns on them with the rest of the clones.

Yeah, that's been depicted before, but I did not expect the game to run up to that in the timeline, so it surprised me. And yes, the game designers make you start the fight by controlling Trick being forced to shoot at a Zero Company operator. But Zero Company fights off the attack, forcing Bennic the clones to flee and knocking Trick into a coma. They escape by getting the Den operational and taking off in their base.

Then you get a year time lapse. Trick's still comatose in a bacta tank. Zero Company is again just scraping by taking missions here and there, including against the new Empire. This section is really where the depiction of the universe excels for me. In the movies, the transition between Republic and Empire just sort of happens. Here, it's apparent just how jarring the whole thing would be for those in the middle of it. One day, a bunch of systems are fighting to secede from a Republic they see as corrupt. The next, their leadership is being crushed. Then, in short order, it's all being declared "The Empire," and even loyal Republic systems are seeing "maybe there were kind of right."

Jae, who was all too happy to get back to mining, calls up and asks Zero Company to get her out now that Imperial control has put a strangehold on her business. We get another cameo when Trilla (the Inquisition's Second Sister, whose name I immediately recognized) baits Tel into a rendezvous with "surviving Jedi," though she escapes. With help from Rex, Trick has the chip removed from his head and is restored to activity, albeit with the guilt of having turned on his friends.

And as things get toward the end, the second unexpected twist catches me - Hawks gets captured and infected by Fathom. He does manage to largely resist control, at least. And the Shadow Plague is explained to not be a disease, but some sort of quasi-hivemind life form, Fathom being its central host. That's all a bit vague, but comes with the revelation that there's not going to be any medical cure.

Still, Hawks is stubborn and pushed for a final assault on Fathom at a floating shipyard. During the attack, a trio of Imperial ships show up to attack the Coil too, being led by... Bennic. Chaos and a lot of ship collisions ensure. Zero Company chased Fathom onto Bennic's ship and finally kill her - which seems to "cure" those infected as the central nexus of the Shadow Plague has been eliminated. And in the wreckage, Hawks beckons Bennic to rejoin Zero Company, which he does.

It's a happy ending with the day saved and the "family" of Zero Company all back together again. There are biases and frictions between the characters, but they've genuinely come together in spite of all that.

It's got the fantasy elements and the good vs. evil I associate with Star Wars, but it's also got a lot of complexity throughout as well.